Leigh and Bree Attwood – Supplied
‘I always had that interest in whisky and a love for it. But it wasn’t until we started drinking Australian whisky. It sort of became an obsession then. I just couldn’t stop thinking about it, and thinking about how I wanted to be a part of that.’
For Leigh and Bree Attwood, the founders of Backwoods Distilling Co. – who are finally going to release their first whiskies next week, a rye and a single malt, following months of uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic – their journey into distilling started with a love for Australian whisky.
Leigh’s obsession reached a new peak when he first visited Peter Bignell in Tasmania. ‘Just seeing in Tassie what people were doing in sheds… I was just like – this! I can do this!’
For Bree Attwood, it was Black Gate. ‘When we started exploring how different Australian whiskies tasted, I just fell in love with Black Gate. One camping trip, there was a bottle of Black Gate and I remember I was just like, wow, this is amazing,’ says Bree. ‘Meeting the people making it was the inspiration, too. It was the whole industry; it was the story behind the makers that really got us going.’
It certainly hasn’t been common for new distillers entering the scene in the last 20 years to specifically credit Australian whisky as their inspiration. Scottish single malt is the most common catalyst, American Bourbon or rye follows, and a couple of Aussie distillers reference Irish whiskey.
But the Attwoods have been different. At every post, they’ve been determined to create uniquely Australian whiskies that say something about who they are and where they’re from.
Backwoods Distilling Co., Yackandandah – Supplied
They both grew up in Myrtleford, 45 minutes south of Albury-Wondonga. Just over 3000 people live in Myrtleford, but the couple didn’t first get together until Bree finished college and Leigh was in his first year at university. From there, living overseas and then in Melbourne took them away from the Victorian high country for almost 20 years. It was the tiny town of Yackandandah, 30 minutes north of Myrtleford (‘Yack’ to the locals – perhaps not the most delicious name for a whisky town) that drew them close to home.
‘We sort of had that hankering to get back,’ says Leigh. ‘Initially we were thinking about coming back to around Myrtleford, but then we went home over Christmas and our families were crazy and drove us mad! And then Bree discovered Yackandandah.’
‘It was a bit of a nothing town when we were growing up,’ says Bree. ‘But when we came back, it just had this buzz around it, and it’s got a really cool community – lots of artists and musos… We were living in a crappy old house in Melbourne, and we just started coming back to the north east every holidays, every long weekend. And then we found this place in Yackandandah and we just couldn’t let it go. We put an offer in, before we’d got jobs or anything, and it just all fell into place. Literally within three months, we got jobs, sold our house and we were on our way. Then we started to talk about the whisky idea.’
The Attwoods started looking at locations nearby, breweries mainly, where they could start distilling. But then a talk with the local council resulted in them being granted a license to distil in their own shed on the property.
‘It just accelerated things and advanced it so quickly,’ says Leigh. ‘To be able to distil on the property, particularly while we were trying to maintain our day jobs, meant that, you know, we could be down there at night, be there on weekends and still be kind of home. That was just a huge kickstart.’
‘Stillvester’ – Supplied
The next hurdle was sourcing a still. Leigh went to Tasmania to visit Knapp Lewer and Stillsmiths, two of Australia’s top still makers, but found they couldn’t assist in helping him customize the pot to his own design. He then got in touch with Mark Burns, the owner of Burns Welding and Fabrication and The Aisling Distillery, based in Griffith, three hours north. For Leigh, ‘Burnsy’ was the perfect fit.
‘At that time, Burnsy was the only one that I could really work with to design my own still, and the fact the he was local, within driving distance at least, made a big difference. We had an idea of the kind of spirit we wanted to create, and he had a lot of knowledge and was willing to share, so I spent a lot of time up there with him… To have someone like him who’s a distiller, but also makes stills, that was so valuable.’
The Attwoods talk about the still Burnsy made for them (‘Stillvester’) like it’s their third child. The 1250 litre pot, with a reflux bulb at the base of the neck, has been hard at work laying down spirit since 2017. Rye whisky and single malt became their preferred styles, channeling Belgrove and Black Gate, and the Attwoods found another ready ally in Voyager Craft Malt in NSW. Specialty maltsters, Voyager supplies grain to a number of leading distillers and brewers, and all of Backwoods whisky has been produced with Voyager-sourced grain.
With Backwoods rye whisky, Voyager’s approach is given full room to shine. The mash bill Leigh ultimately settled on – 60% heritage rye, 25% pale malt, 10% wheat and 5% chocolate malt – is sourced from farms in NSW’s Riverina region (the single malt is also a mix of three different specialty malts). The rye grain, in particular, comes from Barellan (the same variety used for Archie Rose’s Sandigo Heritage Rye), and through Voyager, the Attwoods have even shared their whisky with the farmer that grew the grain.
‘You feel so connected to it, when you meet the guy that grows your rye,’ says Leigh. ‘And again, it’s that idea of keeping it local. We just want to use them because it’s closer to us and we want to capture the flavours of where we live.’
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That same philosophy has driven Backwoods’ approach to maturation. They only use casks that have previously contained Australian wines or spirits. The first rye whisky release is a vatting of two ex-shiraz casks from the Barossa, while the first single malt is a marriage of four ex-tawny casks. But there’s all sorts of casks housing their rye and single malt spirit: Australian apera, shiraz, cabernet, various white wine casks, casks that previously held Australian whiskies (Upshot from Perth), and the much talked about native red gum casks.
The red gum casks came out of the Barossa as well. In fact, the wood used to cooper the first casks Backwoods acquired was initially marked to be turned into fence posts! Now, they’re living it up in the Backwoods bond store maturing spirit. From all reports, the whisky in them is coming along nicely and should be released by the end of this year – the second Australian red gum matured whisky after Old Kempton released a pretty awful first crack at the style in 2018 (actually tasted like fence posts).
The new Backwoods Distilling Co. site – Supplied
Towards the end of this year, the Attwoods also hope to be fully moved into to their new site in town in Yackandandah. Coronavirus prevented a full launch of the whisky and the distillery at the same time, but the pair are just grateful to be launching their whiskies at all via a virtual tasting next week.
‘We’re still pretty lucky in that we’re able to do a launch,’ says Bree. ‘The space that became available for the distillery, it really was the only space in town when you think about it, and because we’ve built this momentum with the business and with our releases coming out and people wanting to visit and come to Yackandandah, it’s been a bit of a pain waiting. But we’re hoping to have the distillery open at the end of the year, and we’re really excited. We just can’t wait for it to happen.’
The first release Backwoods whiskies will go on sale next week, 11th of August. 130 bottles of Backwoods rye whisky, and 250 bottles of Backwoods single malt, will be made available to the public.
The first Backwoods: rye whisky and single malt – Supplied
